This application is based on Patent Application No. 2000-177509 filed Jun. 13, 2000 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic transfer apparatus for transferring a recording data to a magnetic layer of a magnetic recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive apparatus as an external storage for performing data read or data write to a magnetic recording medium is widely used in practical applications. The magnetic recording medium in the hard disk drive apparatus is, in general, written with the so-called servo information or the like corresponding to respective tracks for detecting the relative position of the recording/reproducing head to each track in the magnetic recording medium. The servo information or the like is written in the magnetic recording medium using a data write apparatus called a servo writer, under the hard disk drive apparatus disposed in a clean room or clean bench, in which the magnetic recording medium is incorporated.
As described above, in the clean room, in the case of using the data write apparatus to write the servo information or the like into the magnetic layer of the magnetic recording medium, at the time when the magnetic recording medium is carried in the clean room, as a measure for preventing the entry of a foreign matter adhered to the magnetic recording medium in the clean room, it is necessarily performed that cleanliness of the clean room is appropriately maintained while spraying clean air on the magnetic recording medium to remove the foreign matter.
However, it is not easy to remove a foreign matter once adhered for some reason to a part in the vicinity of the magnetic recording medium in the data write apparatus and exclude it from the clean room. Leaving the state adhered with such a foreign matter as it is will lead to staining of the magnetic recording medium to be recorded which is not appropriate.
In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic transfer apparatus for magnetically transferring a recording data to a magnetic layer of magnetic recording medium, which is capable of surely removing a foreign matter adhered to the data write apparatus without adding any complicated foreign matter removing apparatus.
In accordance with the present invention which attains the above object, there is provided a magnetic transfer apparatus characterized by comprising a magnetic transfer portion for contacting or separating a transfer disk provided thereon formed with a recording data to be magnetically transferred to a magnetic recording medium relative to a magnetic layer of the magnetic recording medium so that the recording data is magnetically transferred and for contacting or separating the transfer disk relative to a cleaning member for removing a foreign matter adhered to the transfer disk, a holding mechanism portion disposed in opposition to the magnetic transfer portion for selectively holding the magnetic recording medium or the cleaning member, and a controller for causing the magnetic transfer portion to make a movement of contacting or separating the transfer disk relative to the cleaning member when the cleaning member is held by the holding mechanism portion.
Further, the cleaning member may be a disk-formed member having a coating layer with a small hardness compared with the hardness of the transfer disk surface. The coating layer may be a polished nickel-phosphorus-plated layer.
The holding mechanism portion may be one which selectively holds a cleaning member confirmed to have predetermined cleanliness.
Further, the controller may be one which causes the magnetic transfer portion to perform the movement of contacting or separating the transfer disk relative to the cleaning member repeatedly a plurality of times.
As can be seen from the above description, with the magnetic transfer apparatus according to the present invention, when the cleaning member is held by the holding mechanism portion, the controller causes the magnetic transfer portion to make a movement of contacting or separating the transfer disk relative to the cleaning member so that a foreign matter adhered to the magnetic transfer portion as a data write apparatus can be surely removed, without adding any complicated foreign matter removing apparatus.